Football (soccer) jerseys for professional male players are increasingly

designed with a tighter, snugger fit. Such design infers a fit male body and a
lifestyle, which accompanies, and cultivates such a body. Replica kits, which
are manufactured for consumption by fans, often emulate this tight fit but are
purchased and worn by bodies that differ substantially from the increasingly
valorized fit athlete’s body. This paper discusses the multiple male aesthetics
that are produced in the process and through the practice of differing bodies
wearing the same garment. I specifically juxtapose the body and the sociality
of the disciplined, professional, and fit male footballer to the body of male fans
with bellies. I argue that the reverence of a specific fit male body which results
in tightening jerseys and which tighter jerseys celebrate, produces the
unintended consequence of highlighting less-than-fit bodies and body parts as
well as the social practices that yield such bodies through fans’ dressing
practices. With an ethnographic focus on Turkey, I demonstrate how the
idealization of a specific male body is subverted, albeit unintentionally, by the
very forces that create it in the first place.

This is the result of numerous contaminations of the world of football in

the world of fashion, from Demna Gvasalia to Lotta Volkova, which
has prompted more and more collaborations between major fashion
houses and the most important European clubs. Now they all make
garments starting from football jerseys, exploiting the success of a
template that opens up an infinite number of combinations and that has
an unsurpassed identity charge. We go from bootlegs of iconic jerseys
of the 90s as for example a few years ago Patta used to do
with Umbro jerseys, to vintage re-editions of adidas x Bape jerseys
for the 2018 World Cup, arriving at the latest drops
by Palace and Supreme that - significantly - have released in the
same week two different interpretations of the game jersey. Brands
that have always linked their aesthetics to the skateboarding world
have now calibrated their new releases towards a football landscape.

And that shift has also come in the opposite direction, with more and
more soccer teams deciding to make their game jerseys with the help
of major fashion signatures, immediately making those kits collectible
models for fans and hypebeasts alike. Some of them in fact have
reached staggering quotations on resell platforms, confirming the trend
that sees collaborations between sport and fashion as the new frontie r
of collecting. The already iconic jersey made for Juventus by the
combined forces of adidas and Palace remains one of the first and
therefore unobtainable examples of this trend, but also the next
designed with Pharrell Williams' Human Race resuming the historic
pink color was a great success. The same formula used by adidas also
with Arsenal, which later made a game jersey also with 424, the brand
of Guillermo Andrade. Not to mention the jersey of Napoli designed by
Marcelo Burlon, the meeting of two universes that could only find each
other and that has generated a very strong hype. Just as the Paris
Saint-Germain jersey designed by Stussy for the opening of the
Parisian store of the famous Californian streetwear brand, the
consecration of the football jersey as the symbol of an entire city.

"EA, it's in the game," as the claim reads in a metallic voice that no
one ever understood by hearing but only years later, perhaps reading
pieces like this. But EA Sports has been linked to FIFA for everyone,
an inseparable duo so much so that one has become synonymous with
the other, setting a new standard not only for football but for the entire
video game landscape. For nearly three decades FIFA was more of a
vibe than a game, and despite its many imitators and the many
criticisms that piled up, it remained unchallenged at the top of the food
chain despite the constant pitfalls of Pro Evolution Soccer, PES for
everyone. In the end, it emerged victorious from the battle with
the Konami product, and last season alone EA confirmed a turnover of
more than 1.5 mln euros, largely derived from the FIFA Ultimate
Team (FUT) version.

A constant revolution that began almost by accident thanks to the

intuition in 1991 of a computer engineer, Jan Tian, who first sensed
the potential of a video game about soccer on a continent dominated
by NFL and Madden. At the time, the video game market on soccer
was dominated by English products, Sensible Soccer, Championship
Manager and Kick-Off above all, but these were unable to provide the
same experience to which FIFA would. In particular the isometric view
of the field instead of scroll, which for the first time mimicked the
feeling of watching a game on TV just as the latter were beginning to
widen.

But above all, it was the deal struck with FIFA that launched EA
Sports' game into a new stratosphere, legitimizing and certifying that
one game was the official one according to the international federation
that governs every aspect of football. It is worth recalling how the first
contract struck between the two parties was obscenely low, because
no one in Zurich realized the value of their brand and the possibilities
the new game offered them. The exact figure was never revealed, but
it was clear that the success, which would soon come instea d, was not
expected by any of the parties involved.

Indeed, like perhaps only SuperMario or Tekken, FIFA is a household

name even with those who have never had a console in their hands,
becoming the best possible ambassador for football to the rest of the
world. It is no coincidence that the first installment will not be called
FIFA 94 but FIFA International Soccer, and it will be released just as
the U.S. World Cup takes place, what for many was the true
international launch of soccer. The quick and instant video game, with
quick and easy-to-configure matches soon became a favorite in all
American college dorms, the perfect companion for sleepless nights
along with fries and coke.

Five years later, when the time came to renegotiate the deal right
around the time of the World Cup in France '98, prices for the rights to
exploit the FIFA brand rose enormously. But it was already a new
world for EA Sports, which had begun to buy the rights to the major
professional leagues, from the Premier League to Serie A, and to
finally have the increasingly realistic players on the field with their
original names. And teams had begun to realize how profitable such a
market was, beginning to exploit their brand not only on the field but
also in all the declinations on which it is now normal for us to find a
soccer club.

In a sense, the agreement between FIFA and EA Sports has shaped

the current football landscape, introducing new channels of
remuneration for clubs and turning rights into the real core business of
sports federations and leagues. From the first pixel to the latest
mode, FIFA's cultural impact has outweighed even that on the
gaming world, including soundtracks that have gone down in history,
iconic covers, and an endless array of memories that anyone who has
ever approached the game cherishes. Now, like all divorces, the one
between FIFA and EA Sports will have its profound repercussions
since last year for the first time, also obviously due to the pandemic,
more than half of FIFA's revenue came from licensing rig hts. And if
now EA Sports FC is now launched with the full support of all the
small and big clubs, as is evident from the posts on social media, the
future of what until the day before yesterday was the unofficial name of
the world's most famous video game and will now go back to being
simply the name of the federation presided over by Gianni
Infantino appears more nebulous.

In 2020 the world came to a standstill due to the outbreak of the Covid -
19 pandemic and with it football. Locked down leagues, the ina bility to
train and television replays of the same matches for months have left a
great hunger for sport in all the fans parked on the couch. And it is
precisely in these months of lockdown that the passion for video and in
particular live streaming to entertain fans has exploded among
footballers. Taking advantage of the many new channels that allow
them to immediately interface with their audience, many footballers
have opened a Twitch channel, the largest platform in this sector, put
on their headsets and started to go live, showing themselves to their
audience while playing their favourite video games,
from FIFA to Fortnite and Call of Duty, to the motor
sports MotoGP and Formula 1. And in the latter two cases, there were
even real events among professional drivers that replaced weekends
on the track.

But apart from the purple platform, there are also footballers who have
dressed, and still continue to do so, the role of real content creators by
opening their own YouTube channels. In this case, in contra st to live
streaming, the players do not just show themselves live while holding a
joystick or chatting with their followers, but create original content that
needs to be professionally edited. In doing so, the players step out of
the playing field and become youtubers in their own right.

Karim Benzema is certainly the most praised and decisive footballer at

the moment. His four goals in the Champions League semi-final,
between first and second leg, against Manchester City are still in the
eyes of all football lovers who are clamouring for him to win the
next Ballon d'Or. Karim The Dream, however, also dabbles in web
content creation through his YouTube channel opened two years ago
and which currently has 490,000 subscribers. The Frenchman is very
consistent in posting videos, in which he shows excerpts of his daily
life, as he takes tours of his maxi house, answers fans' questions and
takes them with him to the gym during home training sessions.

The first video released by Benzema, two years ago now, entitled 'One
day KB9' has an impressive 1.9 million views. But it is episode 14, in
which the Real Madrid striker shows off his crazy collection of custom-
built cars, that has been racking up the most views. The video has
currently garnered a staggering 3 million views, true champion
numbers for Karim The Dream.